The Chancellor of The Exchequer’s budget announcement yesterday (21st March) does nothing to help young people into employment, or help pensioners whose spending power has been dramatically eroded by rising prices, said Cllr. Ruth Cadbury, Deputy Leader of Hounslow Council

Cllr. Cadbury went on: “George Osborne has missed an opportunity to help the Borough’s young people into employment. He has cut the top tax rate of 50p to 45p to help his friends in the banking industry, but he is happy for a generation of young people to be consigned to the scrap heap.

Neither has he done anything to help the pensioners on Hounslow, who are seeing their fixed incomes being squeezed by rising prices and low interest rates. In fact, pensioners will be hit by a nasty hidden Budget surprise: their tax allowances will be frozen, which in real terms means a tax rise.

The Tory mantra of “we’re all in this together” has disappeared, and they have revealed their true colours: this is all about protecting their millionaire friends”